Ringing in the Olympics: Athens

Now that's just terrifying.

Athens. Meh. My apathy for the 2004 Games can probably be explained, in large part, by my having just returned from a month-long (and, in time, not matrimonially insignificant) trip around the US and Canada with nary a penny to my name. Consequently, I took a waiting job at a local hotel for the remaining two months of the summer break, but, as the new kid on the block, seemed to end up getting dumped with all the split shifts. With the big outdoor events (including the swimming that year) understandably taking place in the morning and evening, there wasn’t much left for me to nibble on.

That said, while I largely missed out on Michael Phelps’ arrival on Mount Olympus among other historic moments, I suspect I’m not alone in thinking that Athens didn’t quite deliver. The build-up was marred firstly by construction delays and then, just when everything seemed to be finally in place, the news came through that two of Greece’s brightest gold medal prospects had tested positive for banned steroids – the night before the Games! As the sport got going, the fans didn’t get behind proceedings to anything like the extent of their Sydney equivalents four years earlier, and, with the benefit of hindsight, the whole affair probably contributed significantly to Greece’s current economic travails. In short, a golden opportunity to prove to the IOC that they’d got the Atlanta decision woefully wrong was, in my opinion, well and truly blown.

Some silver linings, though, came in the shape of some GB success. Chris Hoy would win the first of four gold medals (and counting) in the 1km time-trial. And I well remember the night I got back late from work to read that Kelly Holmes, a true veteran of the track, had finally struck gold in the 800m, at an age when she was considered past it. A few days later, as she lined up for the 1500m, most commentators reckoned the double was a foregone conclusion – the future Dame Kelly would cruise to victory and for once in the history of the British sports media, the result justified the hype.